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http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1301/1301frank2/
Toulmin, Stephen. “The Construal of Reality: Criticism in Modern and Postmodern Science.”
Filmography
The Evil of Frankenstein. UK, 1964. Dir. Terence Fisher. Str. Peter Cushing.
Frankenstein. USA, 2004. Dir. Kevin Connor. Pro. Hallmark Hall of Fame.
The Island. USA, 2005. Dir. Michael Bay. Str. Ewen MacGregor, Scarlett Johansen,
Sean Behn.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. UK, 1994. Dir. Kenneth Branagh. Str. Kenneth Branagh,
Robert DeNiro, Helena Bonham Carter.
The Revenge of Frankenstein. UK, 1958. Dir. Terence Fisher. Str. Peter Cushing.
The Role of Science in
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Updated on October 10, 2016
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein examines the pursuit of knowledge within the context of the
industrial age, shining a spotlight on the ethical, moral, and religious implications of science. The
tragic example of Victor Frankenstein serves to generally highlight the danger of man’s unbridled
thirst for knowledge, a science without morality; however, a deeper consideration of the novel’s
text reveals a subtle contradiction to such an interpretation.
While Shelley exemplifies a disastrous effect of unmitigated desire to possess the secrets of the
earth, she employs a subtext filled with contradictory language, which implies that such curiosity
is innate to mankind and virtually inextricable from the human condition.
Victor goes on to asserts that the man “who believes his native town to be the world,” is “happier”
than one imbued with the thirst for knowledge. While it appears that Victor is endeavoring to
glorify a simpler, more provincial life, there is a condescending tone at work. The use of the word
“believes” implies ignorance; it insinuates that such a man holds an opinion that is not based in
fact or empirical evidence. The use of the word “native” also implies a primitive person; in
Shelley’s time the word would have had far deeper implications of ignorance than the manner in
which it is used today. While the word appears as synonymous with “hometown,” the effect on the
nineteenth-century listener is to evoke images of a man who is primitive, largely uneducated, and
perhaps only a few degrees removed from the “savages” of distant regions. Subtly implied
through such subtext is the notion that it is, in fact, the ambitious man that is held in higher
esteem, and that it is far superior to thirst for knowledge than to languish in ignorance.